I have written a fair number of posts about various brands of karate gis, because in most dojos students train in nice white pajamas, because of the historical friendship of the founder of Judo and the founder of Shotokan Karate in Japan. Thank you, Sensei Kano, because without your help, Sensei Funakoshi might have failed as a karate missionary to mainland Japan.
In a prior post, I discussed the pros and cons of Meijin Karate Gis, which are distributed at the Dragon-Tsunami website.
I just placed an order for five (because of the price break) of the new lightweight Meijin Tropical Weight Karate Gis, and since we’ve started breaking 100 degrees on a regular basis, and since Monsoon season came early here in Phoenix, Arizona, which makes Phoenix as humid as a swamp for a month, I am looking forward to the new gis with a lot of enthusiasm.
One of the reasons for my enthusiasm is that the new Tropical Meijin Karate gis are improved. That makes me happy. The previous version of this product was good value for the money, but the twill material was unlike the canvas that I’m used to in a karate gi. And even though the light weight of the gi was nice, and the wicking effect was wonderful, it wasn’t quite the perfect tropical weight karate gi, even though the gi pants didn’t bind at all, ever, during kicks.
Now they’ve improved the tropical karate gi, according to their website, which says:
“This new product represents a very substantial upgrade from our original Meijin TROPICAL uniform. The most obvious, and most exciting difference is that we have finally found a textile mill capable of producing a super high quality 10 ounce cotton canvas for our medium weight Tropical uniform to replace the 9 ounce cotton twill that we have used in the past.”
There is some hope in my mind that for me, this will be the perfect karate gi; that is, the best possible karate gi for training in warm, humid weather. Or in hot, humid weather.
On the other hand, if the customer service is terrible and the price is lousy, it doesn’t make sense to buy a product even if it is improved.
But the customer service at Dragon-Tsunami is simply unsurpassed in the martial arts product world. Good customer service? They invented it!
It’s Saturday at 4 pm in Arizona. When I dialed, the call was answered on the second ring. The wonderful lady who takes the orders looked at her computer, found my address, found the data from the last transaction, and asked if I’d like the products shipped to the same location and if I wanted to use the same card.
The transaction was frictionless and pleasant. “Are you the Mr. McDaniel in Phoenix, Arizona?”
Yes, she has a Japanese accent. But if you can’t stand to talk to somebody with a Japanese accent, why are you studying karate?
Now I’m waiting with wild enthusiasm for my box of ultra-lightweight, newly-improved gis.
I know in advance that I’m going to like the design, because it’s so much like the design of my beloved 1968 Tokaido karate gi, except a little tiny bit better, with the longer ties, more material under the arms so the gi doesn’t pull out of your belt with rising blocks, and vents under the arms that were designed for a dojo in Arizona with a swamp cooler in Monsoon Season.
But I’m interested in seeing how much of an improvement the new material is going to represent. I know that it won’t be quite as good as the cotton material in the Tokaido made-in-Japan karate gis, because apparently, Tokaido has an exclusive contract with the cotton mill in heaven, and all other materials used to make karate gis fall short of the glory of Tokaido’s made in Japan light blue super-duper material.
On the other hand, for a gi that I’m going to wear every day in warm weather training (so having multiple gis is important), price is an object. And because I can get FIVE of these for the price of two Tokaido gis, and these are about 85% as good, hey. Even I can do the math. And I’m a bankruptcy lawyer!
CRITICAL NOTES: since the sizing and design for Meijin karate gis is very similar to that of my beloved 1968 Tokaido traditional fit karate gi, think about ordering a size larger than you do with the gis that run large.
ALSO: IF YOU ARE GOING TO ORDER A TOKAIDO GI, BECAUSE I JUST REMINDED YOU HOW GOOD THE MATERIAL IS, MAKE SURE YOU ORDER A MADE IN JAPAN TOKAIDO, BECAUSE MY FRIENDS HAVE HAD BAD, BAD LUCK WITH THE CHINESE MADE TOKAIDO GIS.
The price of the new Tropical Meijin Karate gis, given the price break when you order five, is fifty-four bucks in the mid-sizes, and less for kiddie sizes and more if you’re a sumo wrestler. The price went up slightly when they improved the cloth, and oh, well.
There’s a lesson here. Get ‘em while the price is as good as it is, because if they ever figure out how far below market they are, darn.
So now I wait. I’m going to be at the Arizona State Bar Convention when the box o’ gis arrive, so I’ll probably wait until after I wash ‘em and wear ‘em at a workout or two to let you know if they fulfill their promise, but to paraphrase Luke Skywalker, I have a good feeling about this.
By the way, I have pointed out previously that Andre Bertel, a blogging karate student who was a private student of Sensei Asai, has indicated that in his opinion, the best karate gi is made by Hirota.
He explains that he likes the “Hirota Pinak Kata” karate gi best of all because it’s light, hangs well, and doesn’t distort your kata. Note that Sensei Bertel has a different view than the rest of us of the role of a karate gi in karate kata demonstrations: we’d just as soon be hiding behind ours!
He also suggests that if you’re going to buy a Hirota kata, “in all cases, if you are not in Japan, or can’t get over here before ordering, consider contacting someone who is a karate dogi professional to help you. My suggestion is Hamid Abassalty (http://kuroobiya.com/shop/). Hamid offers an excellent service, and is obviously getting uniforms and belts for much cheaper for his company; therefore, by using his service you won’t lose any money, and ensure that you get what you want!”
Now, if a world-class Shotokan student, instructor and competitor like the Kiwi Andre Bertel says good things about Kuroobiya.com and Hamid Abassalty, what that means to me is the following: when I get my Shodan (and stranger things have happened; people have been hit by pieces of SkyLab, for instance!), I will feel a strong need to celebrate.
Once I’m sure that I am not hallucinating, of course.
And then I’ll get a custom gi from Kuroobiya and I’ll see if that custom gi place that builds gi out of hemp is still in business, and have a gi buying orgy!
And I will report the results to you, gentle reader.
p.s. remember that if you need to know how to care for your gi, you could do no better than to review the discussion of gi cleaning and care by Rob Redmond on his best of breed website, 24 Fighting Chickens. And no, I have no idea.
